HIST 2297

Public History Lab: The History of People Setting Themselves Free From Slavery in the US

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2023-2024.

In this course, we will study the history of Black resistance to slavery in the US. Then we will help to build an exhibit about that topic at one of the foremost museum sites that interprets the history of US slavery. Students will learn about the history of slavery and emancipation, and how the attempt to memory-hole the history of Black resistance to slavery has shaped public memory and politics. We will also study how institutions like the Whitney Plantation Museum in Louisiana are working to produce a more accurate understanding of the American past. The course will run parallel with a sibling course being taught in the University of New Orleans' MA program in Public History.  In the second half of the course we will shift to working on the research, development, and production of the exhibit. The course will culminate in a trip to Louisiana (HIST 2298). There we will work on-site for a week with community partners, museum staff, and our colleagues in the UNO course. This will require students to make travel arrangements, and to pay a program fee that will cover lodging and local transportation.

When Offered Fall.

Distribution Category (HA-AS, HST-AS)
Course Subfield (HNA)

Comments Course includes a required 1-credit trip to Louisiana during Winter Session. Students enrolled in HIST 2297 will receive a permission code for enrollment into HIST 2298 prior to Add/Drop.

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